ASPAQ N AHMED Vs. STATE OF GOA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The appellant herein is accused who has been convicted and sentenced by the learned Special Judge, Mapusa in Special Criminal Case no. 9/2003 under section 20 (b) (ii) (c) of the Anti Narcotic Drugs and psychotropic Substances Act, 1985 to undergo R. I. for a term of 10 years and to pay a fine of Rs. 1,00,000/- in default to undergo R. I. for 1'year. The accused has challenged the said conviction and sentence imposed upon him in the present appeal.

(2.) The case of the prosecution is that on 18-1-2003 at about 15. 00 hours. P. I. Uday Naik of ANC Police Station, Panaji, got reliable and specific information that a person of certain description would come to deliver a consignment of charas to his customers near Hotel Green Park, Guirim, Mapusa, between 18. 00-18. 30 hours which information P. I. Uday Naik/p. W. 4 reduced into writing and submitted a copy thereof to Dy. S. P. D'souza/p. W. 5 through the P. I. of ANC Police Station, Shri Vincent Paes/pw6 and thereafter he secured the presence of two panchas, namely. Gangadhar Halankar/pw3 and Vijay surlakar and informed them about the receipt of the said information and after introducing the panchas to the raiding party they left to the said Hotel Green Park at Guirim along with the seal of the said Police Station as well as the weighing kit box and other required material including a typewriter and reached there about 17. 10 hours and concealed their presence.

(3.) At about 18. 15 hours, they saw one person who came from Guirim side towards Hotel Green Park with a shoulder bag on his left shoulder whose description tallied with the description earlier received and all of them thereafter surrounded the said person who is none other than the accused, identified themselves and also obtained the identity of the accused and then P. I. Uday naik/pw4 told the accused about the receipt of the said information and about his wanting to take a personal search of the said shoulder bag carried by him with charas and prior to that P. I. Uday Naik/pw4 introduced the raiding party members including the panchas to the accused and also told him that he had a right to be searched before a Gazetted Officer or a Magistrate of his choice which offer the accused declined. At that time, the accused was wearing a black colour t-shirt and a black colour pant and the accused on being told to hand over the shoulder bag of black in blue colour, the accused handed over the same and in the said bag there were 6 in number, rectangular substances wrapped individually in transparent polythene bags in the form of slabs which had additional transparent polythene wrappings to each of the said slabs which aftei opening the inner wrapper were found to be blackish in colour and upon smell PW4/p. I. Uday Naik told the members of the raiding party that the said substances were suspected to be charas and they were collectively weighed and found to be 3. 07 kgs. which were then put in an envelope, packed and sealed with 7 seals of the Anti Narcotic cell Police Station and was signed by P. W. 4/p. I. Uday Naik, the panchas as well as the accused to be sent for chemical analysis. A personal search of the accused was taken and 2 notes of Rs. 100/- each were found in the left side pant pocket which were also put in an envelope, packed and sealed. The accused was informed that possession of charas was an offence and when the accused was asked to produce legal document the accused could not produce the same. PW4/p. I. Uday Naik then told the panchas that the value of the said suspected charas was Rs. 3,07,000/- approximately. The panchanama was drawn and a seizure report was prepared. PW4/p. I Uday Naik also prepared a letter addressed to the Director of Food and Drugs administration with specimen seal impression on it and submitted the same through P. I. Paes/pw6 and then PW4/p. I Uday Naik prepared 2 more letters, one handing over the seal to Dy. S. P. D'souza/pw5 and the other addressed to Shri Paes/pw6 for handing over the muddemal for safe custody and to register the same in the muddemal register. At about 00. 15 hours of 19-1-2003, P. I. Uday Naik/pw4 returned to the Police Station and recorded the complaint and registered the offence against the accused. PW/6 P. I. Paes received the letter from P. I. Uday Naik/pw4 handing over the 3 sealed envelopes and he entered the same on the muddemal register of the Police Station under entry No. 1/2003 and kept the same under his exclusive custody and on 20. 1. 2003 PW6/p. I. Paes deputed LHC 3050 to the Officer of CID Crime branch, Panaji along with the sealed envelope marked Exh. l along with a forwarding letter addressed to S. P. Crime Branch and a letter to the Director of food and Drugs Administration, Panaji, for chemical analysis. On the same day, pw2/sushant Naik received the letter addressed to the Superintendent of Police as well as the letter addressed to the Director of Food and Drugs Administration, panaji, in duplicate along with big size green colour envelope stated to be 3. 07kgs. of charas and personally handed over the said sealed envelope Exh. l with the forwarding letter and the forwarding note in duplicate, to the Director of food and Drugs Administration on the same day. The Junior Scientific Officer shri Mahesh Kaissare/pw 1 who was at the relevant time working as a Chemist found that Exh. 1 which was received in the laboratory on 20-1-2003 had seals intact individually covered and tallied with the specimen seal impression sent separately. He analysed the contents of Exh. l on 3-3-2003 and found the weight of the substances without wrappings to be 3. 015kgs and on analysis he confirmed that the said substance contained charas.